


No Knives!

by whichstar



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Knives, Other, Post-Canon, Sokka (Avatar) Being An Idiot, Tea, The Jasmine Dragon (Avatar), Weapons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:55:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25542454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whichstar/pseuds/whichstar
Summary: The Gaang wants Mai to disarm herself when meeting them for the first time after the war. It takes longer than it should- just how many knives does she have?-You know that meme where Person B has like a neverending stash of weapons on their body? Well, that, but it's Mai and the gaang just watches on in awe.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 219





	No Knives!

**Author's Note:**

> Just some good old Gaang interactions me thinks

"So, Mai. We're really glad you're here, and we look forward to being friends with you." Katara started. "But could we ask you a favor?"

Mai shrugged, uncaringly. Zuko told her and Ty Lee to to play nice, and one was obviously better at that than the other. "Sure."

Sokka joined in. "Could you, by chance, put down your knives for today?"

Zuko's friends looked at Mai imploringly, doing their best puppy eyes. Mai let out a disbelieving snort. Why would she do that?

"No."

"Pleaseeee?" The Avatar joined in on the pleading. "Just for some peace of mind."

Toph clapped her hands excitedly, hit with an idea. "I could rip all the metal out from her clothes!"

"I'll be naked." Mai frowned, Toph was an earthbender anyways. She couldn't bend metal. "No one wants to see that."

Ty Lee started to open her mouth but was quickly shut up with a look.

"Oh," Toph paused. "I didn't think of that."

Mai glanced at her fellow Fire Nation citizens for help. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Really!" Ty Lee cartwheeled over. "Mai wouldn't hurt a fly- _erm_.. she's not in the mood for throwing kn- no she always want to throw knives.. _ummm_ don't worry, Mai won't hurt you guys!"

Clearly, Ty Lee's words did not make the gang feel better. Mai couldn't blame them, the jumble of words was a weak attempt on the acrobat's part.

"Ty Lee's right. Mai isn't going to hurt anyone." Zuko vouched.

"Do you guys trust me?" Mai asked flatly.

Suki studied Mai, no doubt remembering the way Mai fought with the Kyoshi warriors. "Should we?"

"Fair point." Mai conceded. "But do you really think I'll place all my knives on the table?"

Aang and Sokka nodded eagerly. Zuko shrugged, making it pretty clear he wasn't about to get caught up in this debate after his weak attempt.

"Just for today," Katara emphasized. "It's our first time actually hanging out and we don't want to be accidentally impaled."

"I don't have accidents," Mai informed the waterbender. "If a knife impales you, it was on purpose."

That generated nervous laughter from most of the crew, and some real laughter from Toph. Mai glanced at Zuko again, silently asking for help that wouldn't be provided. Soon, she decided that she could reveal a few knives to get them off her back. Setting down a few knives wouldn't hurt.

She gathered three small throwing knives in her hands with a flick of the wrist. She grudgingly set them down on the table before carrying out the same motion on the other arm. Then she stared expectantly at the other people.

"Happy?"

Sokka shook his head. "You have more knives than that."

Another sigh was let out as Mai revealed another set of blades.

And then some more.

And more.

And then _a lot_ more.

And then- wow, that was a lot of knives.

Silence filled the tea shop as the gang watched Mai methodologically pull out a seemingly neverending amount of knives from her sleeves. Sokka and Aang couldn't keep their mouths closed. Katara's eyebrow crawled upwards with every reveal that it might've hit the ceiling at one point, and Suki just shook her head in astonishment. Zuko and Iroh looked on impressed, and Ty Lee was bouncing off of walls as she started a futile effort to count how many knives were there while Toph grinned like a maniac.

"Happy?" Mai finally asked, gesturing at the pile of metal on the table.

Sokka scratched his head. "Umm... yea-"

"That's not all of them." Toph interrupted gleefully.

"Huh?" Katara asked, her eye twitching. "What do you mean that wasn't all of them?"

"There's more metal on her body." Toph clapped excitedly. "Metalbender, remember?"

Mai glared at Zuko, she didn't know one of his friends could bend metal. Zuko raised his hands in surrender, he must've forgotten to mention it.

The knife girl turned her attention to Toph. "You can see how many blades I have?"

Toph nodded.

"That complicates things," Mai muttered. There went her original plan.

She pulled out the stilettos attached to her legs, ignoring another wave of gasps. Then she moved on to some darts she had in her holsters.

Zuko watched the crew's expressions carefully, hoping they wouldn't take the amount of knives in the wrong way. The battle ended days ago and Mai was still antsy. And an antsy Mai equaled a heavily armed Mai.

Katara was starting to get impatient. Her foot tapped the floor as she waited for the stream of blades to end. It never ended. The annoyance slowly transformed to wonder, though, when Mai pulled out a needle from her hair. And then another from her shoes. Who kept weapons in their hair and shoes? That was kinda cool.

Suki was more impressed than she wanted to be. How did those robes hide all these weapons? It was honestly kind of horrifying to think that someone like Mai used to be on the enemy's side. Her admiration of the Fire Nation warrior grew with every knife laid down.

"How-" Katara strangled out when Mai unveiled another shuriken from seemingly out of nowhere.

By this point, Sokka was just enjoying the show. Every time Mai paused, looking annoyed at the crew, Toph urged her on by claiming their was more metal on her body. He and Aang started up a series of bets on where the next knife would come from. So far, none of their guesses were correct. Probably because Mai heard them and chose to go against their guesses.

Toph remembered being shocked at Mai when they first met. Almost shocked enough to not believe her senses. That was a lot of metal. Who had that many blades on their unprotected body? But now she was just grinning madly at everyone's growing surprise as Mai continued to disarm herself. The amount of metal lessening, but there was a lot to go. She was tempted to metalbend them all, but knew the outcome wouldn't be pretty. It was still tempting though.

Ty Lee cheered Mai on, having lost count of the knives after--like-- fifteen or something. She flipped over to Iroh, asking for the general's thoughts on the hidden knives. Once Iroh replied with a weird proverb, she studied everyone's auras, satisfied at the grudging respect tinging the outsides of each.

Mai paused her movements. "Should I go on?"

"YOU HAVE MORE?" Sokka yelled. He glanced at Toph, who was nodding, and then slapped his own forehead in amazement. "Teach me your ways."

"No." She set down another pair of darts. "These are my last ones."

Toph gave no indication of whether Mai was telling the truth or not.

Some time passed before Aang gave in. He stared at the huge pile of blades on the table. "Flameo hotman, that's a lot of knives."

Nervous chuckles escaped Sokka's mouth as be gestured to the table. "Can we count on you not throwing any of these at us?"

A pause, then a smirk. She clearly wanted to mess with them. "Don't worry, I'll miss."

Sokka gulped. "Right."

Suki decided to break the tension by clapping her hands. She pointedly ignored the table of knives and sat down on the next booth. "So, Uncle Iroh can we have some tea?"

"Of course." Iroh responded with a smile. Seeing Mai unveil her weapons was a very entertaining reprieve from selling tea.

The crew gathered and then broke off into smaller conversations. The girls all congregated to one side as the boys hung out with Iroh. Suki started interrogating Mai and Ty Lee on their respective fighting styles, and Katara seemed fascinated by Ty Lee's knowlede of pressure points. Toph joined in only because she wanted to find out how many knives Mai carried. She never got an answer.

"Can't you count them because of your metalbending?" Ty Lee asked.

"There's too many to count each individual piece of metal," Toph admitted.

Mai tilted her head, interested.

On the other side, a beginnings of a very bad idea was forming in Sokka's mind. What if he surprised Mai and Ty Lee? Just a little scare wouldn't hurt anyone, he told himself. A little friendly scare to even out all the times the Dangerous Ladies scared the crap out of him.

He nudged Zuko. "Hey, so Mai has no knives on her, right?"

"Ummm..." Zuko blinked. "I think so?"

"Watch this." Sokka grinned.

"Sokka no-" Zuko started.

But it was too late. Sokka was already making his silent way to the girls. Zuko and Aang watched with a bated breath as Sokka sneaked his way across the room. So far it seemed like none of the girls had noticed the Water Tribesman.

Well, either that or they were pretending not to notice him.

Right as Sokka was behind Mai, the pale girl flicked her hand and knives flew through the air. Pushing Sokka back to the closest wall and pinning him there.

Silence filled the room. Then Ty Lee giggled, and soon all the girls were laughing. Mai sipped her tea, amusement shining through her eyes.

Sokka gaped. "YOU SAID YOU HAD NO MORE KNIVES."

"Did I?" Mai drawled out. "I meant that they were my last set of darts."

Zuko and Aang couldn't hide their amusement as Sokka tried to free himself. Iroh joined in on the joke, his booming laugh encouraging another wave of giggles from Ty Lee.

A proud smirk made its way onto Mai's usually expressionless face. Perhaps Zuko's friends weren't bad after all. Minus all the weapons she had to reveal. That was so painstakingly embarrassing.

Toph punched Mai on the shoulder. "You're alright. Especially since you wear a lot of metal, I can see you so clearly!"

"You're blind."

"I see with my feet!"

"Ah, seismic sense, forgot about that."

Katara laughed. "You'll get used to it."

Toph had a devious look on her face. "Say, metal clothes aren't a bad idea at all."

"Please, credit me for the invention." Mai deadpanned.

Ty Lee cheered. "Look at us, all getting along."

Mai started to shake her head out of habit, but then paused. The corners of her mouth turned upwards. "I guess we are."

Sure, it took a ton of knives being placed down. But Mai still had plenty up her sleeves, literally. She took another sip of her tea, internally pleased with herself. Zuko was right, his friends were fun to hang out with. They might even become her friends too. Mai never had this many friends before.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Sokka's whining.

"Can someone _please_ help me out of this?"

Except for that guy, Mai had to keep an eye on him.

**Author's Note:**

> I think... Mai supremacy <3


End file.
